Large bill following switch from another supplier

Do you have any billing from SSE. preferably from shortly before the transfer to OVO as that will show what your previous balance at SSE was.

If you have then keep it safe, it’s your proof.

It seems odd that you say you have had no replies at all to emailed complaints.
I assume that you have checked you have sent them the right contact details, and have checked your email spam folders for any reply that may have ended up in there?

If you still have your SSE bills, can you compare the closing meter readings on the last one and the opening readings on your first OVO bill? They should be the same, so any discrepancy here would explain why you’re seeing an unexpected debit balance. There’s a procedure to be gone through if the readings don’t match. 

Hello, Thank you for your valuable inputs. My SSE bills was always online and I used to check online when needed and that system is not accessible anymore. Unfortunately, No hard copy available, that’s where I am facing challenge to defend. There are responses of my emails stating that someone will respond to my concern but not really someone given time to it.

I do not find any problem with meter reading as being smart meter and working fine.

The only concern mine is to know rational behind overdue amount came from SSE when I was on fixed contract and paying via direct debit. Even my month on month usage remain same before and after moving to OVO. Please guide.

Ouch,
you should always download the bill from your online account each month so that you have your own record. (I still have all my downloaded SSE bills and it’s over a year since I was transferred to OVO).
I do it for all my online accounts, you never know if you might need them in future.

Emmanuelle has given you a lifeline above - if you can get PDFs of the SSE billing from the support team then I would do that ASAP.
At the very least you will then be able to compare the last SSE billing with the first OVO billing and see if something odd stands out in the meter readings or elsewhere that might show where the (alleged) £1k+ debt came from.

If this were me facing such an issue then once I have that proof, and can see just what has happened, then if I still couldn’t agree to the debt I would email Raman’s team again asking that they either supply a full explanation for how the debt supposedly arose following the transfer from SSE, or supply a ‘Complaint Deadlock’ letter.
I would also note in my complaint that if no meaningful reply was forthcoming in a reasonable time period (give them one month?) then I would consider that they have no such reply to give and so the matter is indeed deadlocked, that with being the case I would then escalate my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.

Then if no meaningful reply is forthcoming I would lodge a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman.
A Deadlock letter makes that easier, but of course it can be done without one if the supplier is being awkward/obstructive and not providing one.
It isn’t difficult, but does take a few months to get a ruling. I went to the ombudsman over a £5k+ (alleged) debt to Scottish Power after I had left them when I moved house. That’s a long story with a few twists, but the outcome was that the Ombudsman ruled in my favour.

Thank you Dear. I now realized that keeping hard copy could have resolved this matter earlier. Bad luck!! My complaint is at deadlock state as writing multiple times to Raman’s team is not helping as there is no response at all. I think I’m left with no option to go for Ombudsman. I wanted to check in this forum that if any other option available to resolve the issue.

As I say I would give OVO one more chance to resolve things before going to the ombudsman.

Make it clear though that it is their last chance to explain and resolve things, and that you will go to the ombudsman if necessary.

As Nukecad has re-iterated the Support Team will be able to send you your previous statements, this will give a clue as to where the arrears came from. You’ll need to take a look at the meter reading history.

You should also be able to check the meter read history on your OVO account where you can check for any anomalies. 

If you disagree with the arrears and there is an out of line meter reading, you’ll be able to raise a read dispute. 

Hope this helps. 

I closed my account with OVO on 19 February. At that point my account was £200+ in credit. I’ve logged on today to find I owe them £7500+ for three months, the vast majority for gas based on my final reading. Up until October, which they’ve backdated this massive increase to, I was paying £75 per month for gas and electric, often coming in at under that each month, for a 2 bedroom flat. 

Obviously this bill is alarming. I have spoken to OVO who have put the account on hold for one month, but said it will take the investigation team up to 14 days to respond. 

 I can’t afford this final bill and, even if my gas usage substantially increased, there’s no way by this amount. 

Any advice from anyone who’s experienced something similar in recent months would be much appreciated. I’m getting the impression from this forum that the switch from SSE to OVO might be where the issue lies - OVO possibly not getting correct readings from SSE? 

Hi @Scott S , I guess a few thoughts so far. 
I couldn’t tell from your post when you switched from SSE .. was this October?

Also, what about a final bill from SSE together with meter readings at that time to be able to match to starting readings for OVO?

Hope you manage to get things sorted. 

Apologies for not being clearer. I meant that I have an OVO customer ever since they took over from SSE, but my understanding from something I read is that the switch did not occur in name until late last year. 

I will check the readings from SSE. 

Thanks 

Hey @Scott S,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

It sounds like your account needs a read dispute, which either means the opening meter reading from when you switched to OVO, or the closing meter reading when you switched away is an out of line estimate. 

There is more information about this topic here:

Please do not panic, this is an error on there behalf not yours!! 

I have went through every emailed bill from ovo from December 2022 up until this month. I have literally this evening printed 177 pages of evidence that something is certainly wrong with there system

1) I have 4 different bills for each payment period. The one I have received every month, a remake of all billing periods recreated on the 9th of December, a third copy for each billing, all of which were generated on the 9th of February and the online account version generated today the 3rd of march.

2) every single one of these bills for the same billing period are extremely different.

3) my billing period from March to April 2023 is completely missing from the monthly ones, and the generated ones I recieved. my debit for the previous billing period (feb to march) on my monthly pdf bill was £202 and my debit for the following billing period (april to may 2023)was £1236, that's a major jump with no bill for the month this occured. Due to my fathers passing i completely missed this as did not keep track of my online accounts for months.

4) my Jan to Feb (2024) period on one bill was £547 in debit, on the other one and my online one I'm £2002 in debt.

5) My usage for Feb to march 2024 is 213.13, under my direct debit payment of £240 per month but on one bill for the period December to january my gas usage alone was said to be £437 and on another bill for the same period its £171... 

6) if you do a little search online, you can see there have been many others

Hi @DEC87 

I’m really sorry to hear you’re.

I’ll have the Forum Support reach out to you to help get this resolved as I know you’ve been having difficulties for some time now. 

You should receive a private message here soon: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview.